E. Stanley Jones
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Eli Stanley Jones (1884–1973) was an American
Methodist Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a group of historically related denominations of Protestant Christianity whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's b ...
Christian Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words ''Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρι ...
missionary A missionary is a member of a Religious denomination, religious group which is sent into an area in order to promote its faith or provide services to people, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care, and economic development.Tho ...
, theologian, and author. He is remembered chiefly for his interreligious lectures to the educated classes in India, thousands of which were held across the
Indian subcontinent The Indian subcontinent is a list of the physiographic regions of the world, physiographical region in United Nations geoscheme for Asia#Southern Asia, Southern Asia. It is situated on the Indian Plate, projecting southwards into the Indian O ...
during the first decades of the 20th century. He is sometimes considered the "
Billy Graham William Franklin Graham Jr. (November 7, 1918 – February 21, 2018) was an American evangelist and an ordained Southern Baptist minister who became well known internationally in the late 1940s. He was a prominent evangelical Christi ...
of India." His seminal work, ''The Christ of the Indian Road'' (), sold more than a million copies worldwide after its publication in 1925. As of 2018, three million copies of his books have been sold. He is the founder of the Christian
Ashram An ashram ( sa, आश्रम, ) is a spiritual hermitage or a monastery A monastery is a building or complex of buildings comprising the domestic quarters and workplaces of monastics, monks or nuns, whether living in communities or a ...
movement. In 1938, ''
Time Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, to ...
'' called Jones "the world's greatest Christian missionary."


Life

E. Stanley Jones was born in Baltimore, Maryland on January 3, 1884. He was educated in Baltimore schools and studied law at City College before graduating from Asbury College, Wilmore,
Kentucky Kentucky ( , ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States and one of the states of the Upper South. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north; West Virginia and Virginia to ...
in 1907. He was on the faculty of Asbury College when he was called to missionary service in
India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...
in 1907 under the Board of Missions of the
Methodist Episcopal Church The Methodist Episcopal Church (MEC) was the oldest and largest Methodist denomination in the United States from its founding in 1784 until 1939. It was also the first religious denomination in the US to organize itself on a national basis. In ...
. He traveled to India and began working with the lowest castes, including
Dalits Dalit (from sa, दलित, dalita meaning "broken/scattered"), also previously known as untouchable, is the lowest stratum of the castes in India. Dalits were excluded from the four-fold varna system of Hinduism and were seen as forming ...
. He became a close friend of many leaders in the
Indian Independence movement The Indian independence movement was a series of historic events with the ultimate aim of ending British Raj, British rule in India. It lasted from 1857 to 1947. The first nationalistic revolutionary movement for Indian independence emerged ...
, and became known for his interfaith work. He said, “Peace is a by-product of conditions out of which peace naturally comes. If reconciliation is God’s chief business, it is ours—between man and God, between man and himself, and between man and man.” In 1911, he married fellow missionary Mabel Lossing, whom he met in India. Their only child, Eunice, was born in 1914. According to his and other contemporary reports, his friendship for the cause of Indian self-determination allowed him to become a friend of leaders of the up-and-coming
Indian National Congress The Indian National Congress (INC), colloquially the Congress Party but often simply the Congress, is a political party in India with widespread roots. Founded in 1885, it was the first modern nationalist movement to emerge in the British Em ...
party. He spent much time with
Mohandas K. Gandhi Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (; ; 2 October 1869 – 30 January 1948), popularly known as Mahatma Gandhi, was an Indian lawyer, anti-colonial nationalist Quote: "... marks Gandhi as a hybrid cosmopolitan figure who transformed ... anti- ...
, and the
Nehru Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru (; ; ; 14 November 1889 – 27 May 1964) was an Indian anti-colonial nationalist, secular humanist, social democrat— * * * * and author who was a central figure in India during the middle of the 20t ...
family. Gandhi challenged Jones and, through Jones' writing, the thousands of Western missionaries working there during the last decades of the
British Raj The British Raj (; from Hindi ''rāj'': kingdom, realm, state, or empire) was the rule of the British Crown on the Indian subcontinent; * * it is also called Crown rule in India, * * * * or Direct rule in India, * Quote: "Mill, who was himsel ...
, to include greater respect for the mindset and strengths of the Indian character in their work. In 1925, while home on furlough, he wrote a report of his years of service—what he had taught and what he had learned in India. It was published in a book released in 1926 titled "The Christ of the Indian Road" and became a best seller. It sold over a million copies. Other books followed and certain books or single chapters became required reading in various theological seminaries or in degree courses at government colleges in parts of the world. His work became interdenominational and worldwide. He helped to re-establish the Indian “
Ashram An ashram ( sa, आश्रम, ) is a spiritual hermitage or a monastery A monastery is a building or complex of buildings comprising the domestic quarters and workplaces of monastics, monks or nuns, whether living in communities or a ...
” (or forest retreat) as a means of drawing men and women together for days at a time to study in depth their own spiritual natures and quest, and what the different faiths offered individuals. In 1930, along with a British missionary and Indian pastor and using the sound Christian missionary principle of indigenization. (God's reconciliation to mankind through Jesus on the cross. He made Him visible as the Universal Son of Man who had come for all people. This opening up of nations to receiving Christ within their own framework marked a new approach in missions called "indigenization") Dr. Jones reconstituted the “Ashram” with Christian disciplines. This institution became known as the ”Christian Ashram.” In the months prior to December 7, 1941, he was a constant confidant of
Franklin D. Roosevelt Franklin Delano Roosevelt (; ; January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), often referred to by his initials FDR, was an American politician and attorney who served as the 32nd president of the United States from 1933 until his death in 1945. As the ...
and Japanese leaders trying to avert war. Stranded in the United States during
World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
with his family in India (because the only overseas travel allowed was for the military), he transplanted the Christian Ashram in the United States and Canada, where it has become a strong spiritual growth ministry. During this time, Dr. Stanley Jones spent six months in North America, conducting citywide evangelistic missions, Christian Ashrams, and other spiritual life missions and the other six months overseas. He preached and held Christian Ashrams in almost every country of the world. In 1947 in the United States, he launched the Crusade for a Federal Union of Churches. He conducted mass meetings from coast to coast and spoke in almost five hundred cities, towns and churches. He advocated a system through which denominations could unite as they were, each preserving its own distinctive emphasis and heritage, but accepting one another and working together in a kind of federal union patterned after the United States' system of federal union. In 1950 Dr. Stanley Jones provided funds for India's first Christian psychiatric center and clinic, the now noted Nur Manzil Psychiatric Center and Medical Unit at Lucknow. The staff includes specialists from India, Asia, Africa, Europe, and America who had given up lucrative practices to serve in this Christian institution which serves thousands of patients. In 1959 Dr. Stanley Jones was named “Missionary Extraordinary” by the Methodist missionary publication World Outlook. In 1962, he was nominated for the
Nobel Peace Prize The Nobel Peace Prize is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the will of Swedish industrialist, inventor and armaments (military weapons and equipment) manufacturer Alfred Nobel, along with the prizes in Nobel Prize in Chemistry, Chemi ...
for his missionary work in India. In 1963, Dr. E. Stanley Jones received the
Gandhi Peace Award The Gandhi Peace Award is an award and cash prize presented annually since 1960 by Promoting Enduring Peace to individuals for "contributions made in the promotion of international peace and good will." It is named in honor of Mohandas Karamch ...
. Dr. Jones had become a close friend of Mahatma Gandhi, and after Gandhi's assassination wrote a biography on his life. It is noted that later in time, Rev. Dr.
Martin Luther King Jr. Martin Luther King Jr. (born Michael King Jr.; January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968) was an American Baptist minister and activist, one of the most prominent leaders in the civil rights movement from 1955 until his assassination in 1968 ...
told Jones' daughter, Eunice Jones Mathews, that it was this biography that inspired him to "non-violence" in the Civil Rights Movement. In December 1971, at the age of 88, while leading the Oklahoma Christian Ashram, Dr. Stanley Jones suffered a stroke that seriously impaired him physically, including his speech. In spite of that, he dictated onto a tape recorder his last book "The Divine Yes" and preached from his wheelchair at the First Christian Ashram World Congress in Jerusalem in June 1972. He died January 25, 1973 in India.


Published works

These are the British publishers' titles; American titles may be different. Some of his books, such as ''Victorious Living'' and ''Abundant Living'', were designed to be read either from beginning to end as a novel or as a "page-a-day" daily devotional. In 2009 Lucknow Publishing published ''Living Upon The Way'', a 15-hour audio series of selected sermons. The sermons are also available to listen to for free at The Foundation for Evangelism website in MP3 format. In March and July 2010 Summerside Press. published ''Victorious Living'' and ''Abundant Living'' in a new "ESJ Devotional Series" edited and expanded by Dean Merrill.


Books

* ''The Christ of the Indian Road'' (1925). German transl. ''Der Christus der indischen Landstraße. Jesu Nachfolge in Indien'' by Paul Gäbler (1928). * ''Christ at the Round Table'' (1928). German transl. ''Christus am Runden Tisch. Offene Aussprachen unter Jesu Augen in Indien'' by Paul Gäbler (1930). * ''The Christ of Every Road – A study in Pentecost'' (1930). German transl. by H inrichFellmann (1931) * ''The Christ of the Mount – A Working Philosophy of Life'' (1931). German transl. by H inrichFellmann (1933) * ''Christ and Human Suffering'' - Hodder & Stoughton, First English Edition, August 1933. * ''Christ’s Alternative to Communism'' (1935) US title * ''Christ and Communism'' (1935) UK title * ''Victorious Living'' (1936) (devotional) * ''The Choice Before Us'' (1937) * ''Christ and Present World Issues'' (1937) * ''Along the Indian Road'' (1939) * ''Is the Kingdom of God Realism?'' (1940) * ''Abundant Living'' (1942) (devotional) * ''How to Pray'' (1943) * ''The Christ of the American Road'' (1944) * ''The Way'' (1946) (devotional) * ''Mahatma Gandhi: An Interpretation'' (1948); 2nd ed.: ''Gandhi – Portrayal of a Friend'' (Abingdon, 1993) * ''The Way to Power and Poise'' (1949) (devotional) * ''How to be a Transformed Person'' (1951) (devotional) * ''Growing Spiritually'' (1953) (devotional) * ''Mastery (1953)'' (devotional) * ''Christian Maturity'' (1957) (devotional) * ''Conversion'' (1959) * ''In Christ'' (1961) (devotional) * ''The Word Became Flesh'' (1963) (devotional) * ''Victory Through Surrender'' (1966) * ''Song of Ascents'' (1968) (autobiography) * ''The Unshakable Kingdom and the Unchanging Person'' (1972) * ''The Reconstruction of the Church – On what Pattern?'' (1970) * ''The Divine Yes'' (1975) (posthumously)


Compilations

* ''Sayings of E Stanley Jones – A Treasury of Wisdom and Wit'' (1994) Compiled and edited by Whitney J Dough * ''Selections from E Stanley Jones – Christ and Human Need'' Compiled by Eunice Jones Mathews and James K Mathews


References


Further reading

* ''The Missionary of the Indian Road'' (Bangalore, Theological Book Trust, 1996)
by Paul A. J. Martin, (Based on a Cambridge University Thesis.)


External links


E. Stanley Jones Photo Collection from Asbury Theological Seminary
{{DEFAULTSORT:Jones, E. Stanley 1884 births 1973 deaths Methodist theologians American theologians Methodist evangelists American evangelicals Methodist missionaries in India Methodist writers Burials at Mount Olivet Cemetery (Baltimore) American evangelists Methodists from Maryland Asbury University alumni American expatriates in India Methodists from Kentucky Asbury University faculty